Eric's Blog

Garlic olive, mushrooms, and semi-dried tomato pizza.  This was cooked under the broiler (on high) for about three minutes.  I'm happy with the way the top turned out, but not the bottom.  I did not get a good charred crust.  I'll let the stone heat up more next time.  Or try the cast iron skillet trick.

A house around the corner had a bunch of dinosaurs on the brick railing by their front steps.  Guarding the house, I guess.  This is the t-rex.

Curry shrimp chow mein for lunch (not pictured), curry chicken noodle soup for dinner.  And there's the ghetto tv antenna made out of wood, staples, and clothes hangers.  Sheesh!

Cheesesteak (double bacon with provolone, liberally trimmed with jalapenos) for lunch.  Post-anniversary dinner with Mom and Dad.

Mushroom tofu soup from My Tofu House for dinner.  My cousin didn't want his egg, so I cracked two into the soup to make it extra custard-y.  At least that was the theory.  In practice it didn't taste different from the one-egg-soup.  Random leftovers for brunch.

The Vietnamese place on Clement and 12th Avenue is called "Cali-pho-nia."  I'm still trying to decide whether I think it's clever or dumb.

Corn, feta, cilantro, and lime pizza from the Cheese Board in Berkeley.  Yes, corn.  Apparently the Cheese Board is stealing my pizza ideas down.  I sure do like the them.  Why didn't I go there more often when I was living in the East Bay?  A calabrese from Top Dog, as well.

The dinner pizza was corn and ground beef/ham (beef and ham mixed together into tiny meatballs.)  Instead of making the oven as host as I possibly can (550) and cooking the pizza as quickly as possible, I used the Cheese Board recipe of starting with a cooler oven (450), baking the pie on an inverted sheet pan for 15-20 minutes, then finishing it off on the stone for another three or four minutes.  It turned out ok (especially since I lightly oiled the sheet pan to give the crust that extra, erm, fatty goodness), but the crust turned out a little too crisp.  In particular, the edge was very hard and cracker-like.  Maybe the oven runs a little hot?  Or maybe I should just take it out a little earlier.

There's a new street sign on Minna, across the street from the SFMOMA parking garage.  "We reached the limits of poetry on the third day of the big sale."  I'm not entirely sure what that means, except maybe that Academy of Art students take a lot of drugs.

Burger and clam chowder soup from the Royal Exchange in the FiDi.  Both of them were pretty good.  The fried were so-so.  Nicely crisp, but a little starchy and lacked seasoning (i.e. salt!)  The service was competent, but lacked amiability.  It was my first time to the Royal Exchange.  I'm not generally a visitor to that (better dressed and educated than I!) part of town.

I saw the most optimistic thing on the bike ride downtown -- a missed connections note taped up to a telephone pole.  The layout, the colors he uses, even the little drawing of a feather boa on the right side make it all seem so sweetly juvenile.  I hope he finds his girl with the feather boa.

Vietnamese sandwiches from Saigon Sandwiches for lunch.

Mediocre sushi from Ai ♥ Sushi for lunch.  It wasn't super-bad, just mediocre and average.  The hamahi was watery and tasteless, but the salmon was good.  Curry chicken noodle soup from Pho Garden for dinner.  This was also average.  The soup looks good, but it just wasn't that tasty or creamy.  Bland.  Corn and ham pizza for, uh, dessert.  I know it's kind of arrogant to say (because I made the it), but this was my favorite today.  I had it four ways -- plain, with garlic powder, with Tabasco sauce, and with fresh, black pepper.  I like pepper best.  The corn gave the pizza a little sweetness.

My cousin's jung (粽) for lunch.  Ribs for dinner.  The ribs were okay.  I used beer instead of wine for the braising liquid, which gave it a somewhat milder taste.